Got up this morning at 6:45AM, repacked, had breakfast (eggs and toast), and then boarded the bus. I was off to Ometepe (means two volcanoes) Island. We had to go to the Rivas Port to get to the island where we waited for about an hour and a half. The group decided instead of lugging suitcases on the ferry, we would just take a few outfits and a backpack so I had to reorganize my bags. I am very thankful we decided to do so because there were maybe 300-400 people trying to push on to this ferry. Literally people were pushing me over to get on the ferry faster. It was absolutely crazy, all 300-400 people trying to get through to small entrance doors while people are trying to get off the ferry too. It was just nuts--not a place for anyone claustrophobic. I felt like I was in Times Square at New Years. The ferry had three different levels and luckily a few of the students got on and saved seats for the group because there were none by the time I got on. Everyone is trying to find seats and make it to the higher levels so are not moving at all and are just standing with no where to go. We ended up on the second level, sitting inside the ferry. The ferry ride was about 45 min to an hour. I fell asleep for the last 15 minutes or so, but by this time I was ready to get off, the boat had been swaying most of the trip and my stomach wasn't feelings so great.
Ometepe has about 42,000 people in the island, 2 volcanoes (Concepcion (active, second largest (1610 M above sea level) volcano in Nicaragua, last erupted 1957) and Maderas (1394 M above sea level)). While driving I saw that most of the land was forest and green. Each volcano had its own culture---one was influenced by the Inca and the other by the Aztec. There were many wandering horses and cattle along the road. The homes here were much like Corn Island/Bluefields, they were very simple 1-2 bedroom homes. Along the drive in, the guide stopped by a local tobacco plantation and let us see and smell one green and one dried brown tobacco leaf. I couldn't really smell anything to be honest.
All of us were starving so we headed directly to lunch. This "restaurant" was a bit odd and appeared to be more like someone's home (which I guess is typical for restaurants here), making all the food out of personal kitchen. I had grilled chicken, veggies, and fried plantains (for some reason I really liked these today--they look like cooked bananas, however, taste like potatoes).
After lunch we went the hotel. Everyone's stomachs were not feeling great so we got this entire day to relax. Karen was not feeling good after getting of the ferry and ended up getting sick in our bathroom. I felt so bad and had her take some imodium. She had drank some of the water back in Granada the day before and now she was paying for it. I wanted her to get some rest so I went to the hotel lobby (big open room with tables) and skyped my family. It was great to see them (well kind of see them-the connection was not great). Once Karen woke up, I went with her to the small convenience store (basically just a room with a bunch of random products on the bug-infested shelves) to get some Gatorade and prunes. These didn't help because she kept puking everything up, but by dinner time she was feeling better. I think everything had left her system by then. For dinner I ordered a whole snapper fish, however, this time it was extremely salty. I did not enjoy the salt so I didn't eat much of the fish (not my favorite at all). I also had plantain chips and veggies. After dinner, it was back to the room and right to sleep.
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